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How Trying to be Perfect is Not Perfect

August 29, 2010 By

Pefect AlignmentHave you ever pursued a project or dream and never seem to complete what you started because you feel as if it is not "perfect"?  Nothing is wrong with pursuing excellence in all you do but when you let self doubt and overly critical reviews on yourself stand in the way of ever letting anyone see what you produced, then you are not allowing your ideas and creations to realize success.

I have talked to many people who have shared their personal projects with me and I am amazed at the work they have produced.  The types of projects I am talking about is their passion and because they have a deep passion for it, they are overly critical when it comes to criticizing their own work.  Some of the work I have seen from others include, poems, artwork, books, software, an idea, business startup etc.  and what I have noticed is that many usually feel as if it is not good enough to share with the masses or good enough to offer as a product.  This is where I think the pursuit of being perfect is actually not perfect because it is limiting the potential success one might realize if others get to see it and consume it.  Great ideas come from everyday people and innovation starts with each individuals imagination and solution to problems.  That made me wonder about how many unique and cool products there were out there that are not for sale on the mass market because of individuals self limiting beliefs.  I have browsed craft fairs in the past and have found the most beautiful crafted products and actually prefer to buy these handmade items for gifts because they are perfect in my eyes, unique, original and much more creative than products offered in masses.

Limiting yourself by trying to be perfect could actually hinder you from actually reaching perfection.  Many fear the criticism given by others and try to perfect what they are doing before they feel it is good enough.  Yet, good enough never occurs and it is shelved away, never to be seen by anyone or by only a few people.  We cannot satisfy everyone and you can actually use the criticisms by people as ways to improve what you are doing, if they are truly giving you constructive criticism in the first place.  If someone says that idea is horrible, you may ask, "how can I improve upon this, based on your assessment" or ask about other possible ways to make your creation better and find areas to work on from different sets of eyes versus only what you see and know.  Like I said earlier, you cannot and will not satisfy everyone, so pay attention to the ones who like what you have produced and cater to them.  If you look at our market today and in the past, there have been amazing products offered to us that we love, yet others do not care for.  A great example is the choice of using a PC or a MAC.  Lets imagine if the founders of Apple never shown anyone what they have created or offered their products for sale, we would never have the iphone, ipad, ipod and other creative products that came from this company.  Apple has evolved over time, and with any company or product, it evolves into better products over time.

If you have an idea, product or dream you have created or invented, give it room to breathe and consider sharing it with the world, you might not satisfy everyone, but something great might come about you allowing it grow.  Things will never be perfect but you could always work towards that goal, but don't let the pursuit of trying to be perfect actually stop you from being perfect.

Filed Under: Goals, Motivation, Passion, Personal Innovation, Personal Productivity, Success Tagged With: , ,

Taking Goals for Granted

August 21, 2010 By

burning skyWhen you set goals or take on a new hobby, do you usually get excited during the beginning and as time passes, you seem to lose interest?  This happens to many people, me included.  The one bad thing about having this cycle occur over and over again is that if you do not see things through the rough patches, you will never realize the ultimate success of being very good at a hobby or attain the highest level of the goals you have set.  This could also affect your career as well, many people get really excited when they first start a new job, but as time goes by, they start to get bored from the same things that used to get them on a natural high.  This article is about how I stopped this cycle of being conditioned to success and to not take my goals for granted.

DON'T ALLOW YOURSELF TO STOP GETTING EXCITED

Remember when you first set towards your new hobby or business goal and as you attain even the smallest of achievements, you get ecstatic with joy and you celebrate?  As time passes, and you start to see the same results or it might have grown, but you don't get as excited, you start to pay not attention anymore and look for more ways to instill newness in what you are doing.  If your goals are tough to accomplish, when time passes, you also start to think to yourself that you will never achieve the original goal you set out to accomplish.  You lose the steam and the desire as you once had.  Now this could be applied to many different things you do.

What I did to keep my motivation and level of interest is to not take my goals and achievements for granted.  You condition yourself by not caring about repeating the same achievements you have already accomplished, but it is just as important as it was the first time.  For example, for bloggers, when they receive their first comment or review, they get really excited, then over time when more and more are given, the excitement level is not really there.  I try to continue all successes I have and appreciate it if I can repeat what got me excited.  Remember to celebrate the first times as well as the 100th time you did something or accomplish something.  Its kind of like when we are healthy and strong, we don't really appreciate each day as we are well and feeling great, but when we get sick or have pain, we wish for the days to return when we were feeling great.  It is important to celebrate each day and appreciate what we have and what we accomplish.  Don't fall into the trap of taking things for granted and remember to show appreciation for all you accomplish.

Filed Under: Goals, Motivation, Passion, Self Discipline Tagged With: , ,

How to Find & Discover your Passion(s)

August 17, 2010 By

Myst telescopeMany conversations I have with people regarding personal innovation and development usually deals with an individuals personal passion for something.  I usually ask, what their passion is.  A majority of people simply don't know or state that they are still searching for it.  I feel that every one of us not only has a singular passion but like a smart phone we have multiple passions, somewhat like apps and we pick and choose the different passion apps to apply to our lives.  I wanted to discover why some people don't know what their passion is and why some continue to seek their passions even as years pass by and I ask the question again, yet get the same answer.  Below is the result of multiple interviews with people I have had discussion with about this very topic and how to find and discover your passion(s).

Before I begin my bullet pointed list, I have learned that some people limit their belief that they can have multiple passions in their lives.  Somewhere along the way in their life, they have the notion that to have passion for something, it should only be a singular focus.  Do you or have you felt this way?  In reality we actually have multiple things that we love to do and could develop a passion for.  I feel that when we limit ourselves to the notion that we are only constricted to one or two passions we could have, we freeze our spirit and minds up to really give claim to our passions in our life.  For example, I have a passion for photography, writing, selling, traveling and eating good food.  I have tried many different things and could say I am good at each one of those I have selected, but by experimenting in different activities, I discovered if I truly enjoyed doing the activity or realized that I had no passion for it.  For example,  I was always fascinated with oil paintings and wanted to be able to create a masterpiece myself, so I went out and got myself an oil painting set, canvas and book.  I gave it a try for about 3 months and as I was learning and actually doing the paintings, I came to realize that I was not really into it and you can say, I didn't have a passion for it, yet I have an appreciation for viewing oil paintings.  So the next time someone asks you, "what are you passionate about", you can give them more than one answer.

Here are some ways to help you discover your passions:

  • Enjoy Talking About: What is it that you enjoy talking about?  If someone brings up a certain topic, do your ears perk up and you pay full attention?  If you ask questions after questions with the undying need to learn more, then maybe this is something you could be passionate about.
  • Enjoying the Research: If you catch yourself enjoying the time spent learning and researching an activity and the time seems to just pass by, then this might also be a candidate as a passion.
  • Feeling Good: Pay attention to your feelings, if you feel good when you do something, this is a personal enjoyment that a particular activity fulfills within your own needs.
  • Experiment: Be open to trying different things and experiencing different activities to see if something catches you.  Passion will be natural and you will feel a calm joy or at times extreme joy when doing that particular activity.  Unless you try different things, you will never realize the different passions you just might have.
  • Let Passion Find You: Sometimes we don't have to even go out and actively look for our passions, it will come naturally and sometimes even come to you.  Just be aware of your feelings and to accept the different levels of joy you could have.
  • What you do during your free time: What do you usually do when you have free time and choose to do?  These might be your passion(s), it could be something as simple as reading books to watching clouds, each individual has something that brings them joy.  It does not have to be something that will bring you an income, that is what a career will do, but a passion for something deals with your emotions and feelings, so don't just limit it within the same bucket as a job/career.
  • Step out of your comfort zone: Do something different, do something that scares the heck out of you, be open minded and discover the hidden wonders of the world and see if the passion bug grabs onto you.
  • You Can't wait to do it again: If once you finish something you are passionate about and you have to stop, you look forward to doing it again.  This is passion.
  • Gives you energy: If you are not passionate about something, usually you will need to really self motivate yourself to get up and do it, but if you have passion for something, you will willingly do it and even if you had lack of sleep the night before, you will gain the natural energy to just keep going, this is the natural high that a passion brings to your spirit.
  • Get Better: When you are passionate about something, you tend to want to improve and get better at doing it, you are thirsty for more information and discovering a new trick or way of doing it better brings you even more joy.
  • Write a Passion Journal: When you get the great feeling of joy when doing something, keep a simply passion journal and document how you felt and what you did.  If you continue to keep writing the same things over and over again, guess what, there is your passion.  Writing it down always helps me recall multiple emotions and thoughts over time and over time as things combine, you could get a really good picture of what you are passionate about.

?If these tips don't help and you still find yourself seeking, then maybe it is the search that you are passionate about.  You are looking for that extreme rush of joy that you think you might obtain and ignoring the joys of certain activities because it didn't bring a certain emotion you were expecting to have.  Writing to many people could be an absolute bore but to me, I simply love writing.  If you have any type of joy or happy feeling when doing something, maybe you need to take more time to develop the needed skills or talents to really appreciate the art behind what you are doing to claim that you are passionate about it.

Remember, passion for something can and will change over time. i am sure some of us enjoyed playing with toys when we were younger but grew out of it and discovered new passions.  As we age we are still growing and developing as we move into each year with new understanding and wisdom that life brings.  Your passions might change, accept this natural change and embrace the new passions that come your way.  Some things stay with you forever, and these are the deep passions that took root within you.

Filed Under: Life, Passion, Personal Innovation Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How to get Very Good at Something

August 16, 2010 By

FlightAs we progress in life we pick up skills and develop talents that to some seem to come naturally.  When we watch our favorite band perform, they do it with ease.  An engaging public speaker makes you feel as if you could get up there and give the same speech with as much enthusiasm and power.  I am amazed when I watch both professional and non-professional snowboarders do tricks, and make it look so easy.  When, I go about trying to play a guitar, snowboard or give a public speech, at first it wasn't as easy as it looked.  Whatever it is that you want to get very good at, each person within their natural abilities can accomplish their goal of being very good at something.

The key word here is goal and I would also add focus.  When someone wants to get very good at something, a person must give it time to develop mastery and second nature reflexes that comes with time and effort.  When I speak with experts within their niche mastery, they ALL tell me that it took years of practice and execution to develop into the natural skills that is the end results of their years of hard work.  When we see the experts do their thing, we usually see the end result, but in the background and behind closed doors, these masters are practicing, refining and honing their skills.

Many people look for the easy route and want to impatiently become not only good, but great at something but do not put the effort necessary to achieve the level of expertise.  I stated focus earlier because, for you to be very good at something, you must give it focus.  I am sure some people could handle multiple activities and tasks, but to really become very good, give it room to develop and give it the necessary focus for you to learn and grow instead of piling on many things to learn all at once.  Give focus to a few things and develop mastery in those areas before taking on another challenge.

I am not saying that nobody could become very good at many different things, for example, Leonardo Da Vinci was very good at many different things.  You too can become very good at many different things, but do give it focus, time and effort for it to develop.

An analogy I can give is one of my favorite past times, snowboarding.  When I first stepped on a snowboard, I was somewhat comfortable because I used to skate and surf, but snowboarding was completely different.  As I jumped on the ski lift and the part where you have to jump off came right in front of me, I fell flat on my behind.  I kept falling, and was not able to get too far until I fell again.  When I finally got the hang of getting further than 10 feet, I didn't know what to do, so I did what I knew at that moment and I fell.  I caught myself saying to myself that I probably can't do this and probably should choose another recreational sport, because this one hurts!  I kept at it and I kept learning.  I kept getting up and learned how to stop, slow down, steer myself and keep myself from falling.  As the season went on, I was able to go down an entire run without falling and graduated to the blue trails.  I still fell here and there, but I kept getting up.  I was hooked from the natural high it gave me and the natural laser focus to the task at hand, because if I didn't, I could seriously injure myself.

Now as years passed and season after season has gone by, I consider myself a decent snowboarder.  I catch myself learning more of the details of the sport such as learning to control my breathing, looking ahead at where I want to go and play with the different settings to get better at turning.  Now I can do jumps and go in between trees as well as challenge myself to go fast and really enjoy each decent down the mountain.

Now I am not a professional snowboarder or have the goal to be one, but I consider myself very good at snowboarding to where I can teach others and some have even made money at doing so.  I gave this example because, just like in life and the skills we want to master.  It takes time and when we fall, we must get back up.  Things start to come naturally as our body and mind understands the movements needed to perform.  Before, I was thinking way too hard to just go 10 feet and now I can go down a mountain without really thinking, it seems natural.

YER BLUESLike anything else, playing a guitar, public speaking, dancing, writing or whatever it is you want to get very good at, it takes practice!  It takes learning from your past mistakes and correcting them.  Some people progress faster than some and at times we must take a look at our natural abilities to do something, like playing in the NFL.  Even if you want to accomplish this, you must have the natural abilities to deliver.

If you give up on your pursuit too soon, you might not ever reach the point of being very good at it and go on to something else and start the whole cycle again.  This example could be applied to anything you do, and it worked for my sales skills, public speaking, writing, learning, social interaction, communicating and of course snowboarding.

I have added many different skills and talents over the years, and I have discovered that the fastest way to become very good at something is coming to the realization that it takes time, effort, focus, talent, and dedication to come to the desired end result.  Don't always look for the end result, and enjoy the journey as you learn.  I look back and realize that the most fun was to discover and feel the joy of figuring things out to become better along the way.  When I reached a point of mastery, it is still fun but the journey there has been the best part.  Have fun developing yourself and "soon" you too will be very good at your chosen "something".

Filed Under: Motivation, Passion, Personal Development, Personal Innovation, Self Discipline Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Career Poll: Do you know what you are passionate about?

July 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

You might have heard people say, "find your passion, and find a job that matches your passion".  I am curious to find out how many people actually know what their passion is and if so, if it applies to their current job/career.  I am currently researching on how to find your passion and will post a follow up article on How to find your passion.  Please take the time to place your vote.  Thank you.

Career Poll: Do you know what you are passionate about?

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Filed Under: Career, Motivation, Passion Tagged With: ,

Innovative Approach to Reboot Yourself: Press Cntrl-Alt-Delete

July 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
controlaltdelete

Like our computers we have many things going on in our lives that can overwhelm us and cause us to crash or freeze things up to where we are in a rut or feel unmotivated.  Like our computers, there are certain buttons you can push to get you out of that situation and by pushing the right buttons you can move towards innovating yourself and changing your unmotivated state.  You must be wondering why I have the control-alt-delete keys as an example for this post.  Well, just like a computer, we can get stuck and overloaded with processes that tend to freeze us up.  Sometimes no matter how long we wait for something to happen, things just seem to go too slow.  In life, you also have the option for Control - Alt and Delete for a better outcome.  Take a look at what I mean below:

  • CTRL:  CONTROL-  In life, things come our way that we cannot control, but the one thing we can control is our attitude.  We can choose to learn from our setbacks and not let it overcome us and take it as lessons learned or as they say, "if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger".  If you are feeling unmotivated, control the situation by adjusting your attitude towards why you feel unmotivated.  Look for innovative ways to recreate yourself or what you are doing.  When we operate like a robot on cruise control, things can get quite boring, but we have the power to push our own "control" button on how we break out of our comfort zone and open ourselves to different challenges and actions that will give us the sense of motivation back in our lives.  You have full control of what you do on a daily basis, you can choose to do just what is necessary, or you can look for new opportunities, volunteer for different projects, mentor someone, improve upon what you are currently doing... you have the control, just push that button.
  • ALT: Alternative-  Ok, the ALT key is actually alternate, but in this case lets just say it stands for alternatives.  If you are unmotivated, look for alternatives to get you re-energized and motivated.  If you continue doing what you are doing, and yet it makes you unmotivated, you will stay that way.  You will feel stuck because you didn't look for the different routes to take instead you continue doing what makes you feel unmotivated.  Adjust your attitude, with positve thoughts as an alternative or be bold and seek out your passions but if you don't push the alternative button, you will continue to get what now have.
  • DELETE:  Delete-  We are busier people more than ever, and like a computer with multiple processess running in the background of our thoughts, it could freeze up and create a state of unmotivation.  You have the option to press your own "delete" key and delete the things that are negative in your life.  Analyze what makes you feel miserable or unmotivated and delete them.  Replace them with things that do motivate you and with positive thoughts.  Streamline your processess and cut out the B.S. that only freezes you up, and free yourself from having the unnecessary thoughts and activities in your life. 

Remember, you have the "CONTROL" of your own attitude towards things.  You always have "Alternatives" and you can always cut the fat, wasted actions and thoughts by pressing your "delete" button.  If you press all 3 like you would your computer, you will be practicing personal innovation and finding creative ways to live a motivated and productive life by rebooting yourself and improving your current frozen self.

Filed Under: Career, Motivation, Passion, Personal Innovation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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